Tuesday, December 7, 2010

Paint

Sometimes I paint a little bit just for fun. It's a small and relatively insignificant hobby, and I'm very much a beginner. Recently, I discovered that the best way to paint - what produces the most clean, most beautiful, most intricate and exact strokes - is to get only enough paint on the brush for ONE stroke at a time. When I get too much paint, the strokes are bulky and sloppy, and they bleed into one another. When I don't get enough paint, it doesn't produce a stroke as strong and defined as I want. I suddenly realized today that this is what God does with us. He gives us just the right amount of information and direction for only the next thing He wants us to do. If He gave us more than we needed, everything would get really messy. If He gave us less than we needed, we would be weak. That's not how it is! He gives us exactly what we need when we need it. He gives us just enough paint for one stroke. We might not understand what the stroke is supposed to look like. We might not even like the stroke. But one day, when we see all the strokes together, we'll realize that His hand has created a painting more beautiful than we could ever imagine. We'll realize that every single stroke was important, and that they each had the perfect amount of paint.